Carlos Rafael, the infamous former US fishing mogul known as the "Codfather," has re-emerged in his home community of New Bedford, Massachusetts, with a new claim to fame. He now runs a multi-million dollar real estate financing operation, the New Bedford Light reports.

Rafael, an immigrant from Portugal, built a massive fishing enterprise in New England that he was looking to sell in 2016 when he got caught in a sting operation by undercover federal agents posing as Russian mobsters. He flipped his books open, revealing how he was, for years, intentionally mislabeling fish to evade regulatory quotas.

After agreeing to plead guilty, Rafael was sentenced in September 2017 to 46 months in prison for 27 counts of tax evasion, cash smuggling and fraud related to the mislabeling over 800,000 pounds of fish, as reported by Undercurrent News. 

Fastforward to 2021. Rafael, then 71, was serving out the final stretch of his prison sentence when he and his two daughters placed a $770,000 bid to acquire the Merchants National Bank building in downtown New Bedford, "setting the stage for his second act," the article recounts. He was flush with more than $70 million in cash from the court-mandated sale of his vessels and permits.

It was just the first move by Rafael in his new business. He's parlayed the spoils of his fishing empire into a series of high-profile real estate deals and lower-key private loans, according to the article. Property records show him as a lender on 25 renovation projects, adding up to just over $7m over the last three years.

Rafael's loans are short-term, requiring repayment after only six months. The average loan is $291,000. The interest rate: 14%. 

"I'm the bank now," Rafael reportedly said in a recent interview at his office in an industrial warehouse. "You have no clue how relieved I am to be out of the fishing industry. This here: finance. It's better than the fishing business. You shitting me?" 

Rafael has bought some real estate, too, including a defunct, 15,000 square-foot nursing home, for which he paid $770,000 at auction, and a $200,000 vacant lot. In 2021 he paid $2.3m for an abandoned country club, which was lost to fire before he could flip it to luxury real estate developers. A man has since been charged with arson, according to the article.

This year, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center bought the former headquarters of Carlos Seafood from Rafael for $2.3m to expand its offshore wind facilities. Also, his estate continues to collect interest on $23m in principal owed by Quinn Fisheries, which acquired his scallop vessels in 2020. 

"I've seen a lot of gangster stories. Some, they call this loan sharking," Rafael reportedly said. "But I know how to make money the right way, too. Sure, you have to pay taxes up the yin-yang. But screw it. This is legit real estate deals. Legit. No other asshole in the city of New Bedford is making 14% on his money. Not in fishing. No way."